EVANSTON — Mary Sue Erickson of Fort Bridger was first to speak to the Uinta County Commissioners during their July 2 work session.

Erickson had been to a previous meeting with the commission and was returning to see what they had decided about vacating the alley between her home in Fort Bridger and Dave Dyer’s property, the Cash Store. Erickson had concerns about the possible decision to vacate the alley as she claimed it would deprive her of good access to her garage. She also had complaints about the noise and lack of privacy due to the Cash Store’s parties and customers. Erickson told commissioners she had put up a high fence but could not go around the huge willow tree right on her property line and didn’t want to dig post holes into the roots. She said she was angry that Dyer had cut off many branches on her tree and hoped it hadn’t completely destroyed it. 

Commissioner Eric South asked, “What are we to do today?”

Erickson replied, “I want to know if you plan to vacate the alley. He is supposed to maintain a barrier between our property, and he isn’t doing it. They even removed the rocks I had under my garage to keep the animals out. The west side of my garage is really close on the property line. When he has parties the people come onto my property.”

County Planner Kent Williams was in attendance and said, “If you think he is damaging your property then that is a civil matter between the two of you and you can pursue it legally and he can do the same.”

Williams and the commissioners assured Erickson there are no plans to vacate the alley at this time and if that decision changed, she would be notified. 

In other business, Chad Stevens, owner of the Wagon Wheel Motel property in Fort Bridger, came to inform the commission about the renovation of the property and discuss the possible use the small triangular piece of county-owned property within his section. The county property contains an artesian well and Stevens wants to put a concrete slab with a statue of Chief Washakie on it and make a wishing well from the artesian water. 

“I have traveled all over the U.S. and there are very few memorials to the American Indian. I would like to honor the contribution of the Indians here in Fort Bridger with a statue of Chief Washakie. The famous treaty was signed here at the fort and they are planning to do the commemorative reenactment every year, so where this statue would be placed would be visible to anyone coming into Fort Bridger.” he said.

 “I just wanted to run my idea by you this morning. I want to bring people into the county. Fort Bridger is important to the history of our area. ... People could walk around the statue and we would put a plaque on it telling about the history of Washakie and the treaty,” Stevens added.

Commissioner Craig Welling suggested there may be grants available for the statue if it was made in the same style as the one of Jim Bridger at the fort itself. Uinta County Clerk Amanda Hutchinson said the county may have to sponsor any grant application if the property usage is approved. 

Amelia Rutner, Penny Williams, Steve Fowler and Wes Moon from the Uinta County Veterans Board then addressed the commission. They said they had been approached by several people who said their relatives’ names had been left off the Vietnam Memorial at the Uinta County Complex. The cost of adding a name would be $115.00 per name and the memorial company would charge a one-time fee of $130.00 for coming to place the names on the memorial.

“The veterans board will pay the one-time fee, but individuals and families will have to pay for the names. We don’t expect the county to pay either. We will have to publish notifications that we are adding names and set a cut-off date and set a date for the company to come,” Fowler said.

Rutner said individuals have to have been inducted in Uinta County in order to qualify to be on the memorials.

Welling said, “What if there are names that need to be added to the other war memorials?  We should allow people to ask for their soldiers to be added on there as well.”

The board members said most of the requests had been for Vietnam vets and there is space for 30 more names on that memorial. They added they would have to set a limit on the other memorials to keep them looking nice and not add names on the back of the statues. The names on the WWI, WWII, and Korean memorials might cost more as they are raised bronze and applied differently than the Vietnam memorial.

Fowler said, “We have had several organizations and individuals state that they would pay for names if families couldn’t afford to.”

Commissioners and veterans board members added they would gladly help pay for names as well. Welling asked board members to find out what the cost of names on the other war memorials would be. The board agreed to do so and to begin to notify interested parties.

Last item on the work session agenda was maintenance fee waivers in reference to the fairgrounds and rodeo arena. Josh Davis, county maintenance director, said things were going well and explained the increase in fees for covering the schedule for working the rodeos. 

“Because they have added the jackpot events to the schedule, we have to be available for four hours on Friday and all day on Saturday. We use 8-10 loads of water prior to the event and water at least four times between events. We have to get the arena watered down in the morning and then wait and do it again in between events so there is a lot of slack time involved. We are not running the tractor the whole time but have to stick around. The $40 per hour tractor fee is included in the event fee but that doesn’t cover our slack time,” Davis said.

Davis said the jackpot events are a separate entity from the Evanston Rodeo Series, though the rodeo series asks them to come. 

South said, “The arena is not a money-making deal, but we need to break even, if we can.”

Anderson added, “The whole idea of fees is to pay for the water truck, the power and lights, and all that is involved in cleaning and maintaining the area.” 

“Last year I talked to some rodeo arena people from Albany County and they told me they negotiate their fees every three years, so the contract is set for that time with their PRCA rodeo group. When they negotiate at the end of the three years, they can change the fees if the group then decides to add any extra events,” Davis said.

The commissioners said they would review the fee schedule and do what is fair.